AUTHOR: Esha TITLE: A Game Changer STATUS: Publish ALLOW COMMENTS: 1 CONVERT BREAKS: __default__ ALLOW PINGS: 0 DATE: 9/28/2009 11:05:00 PM ----- BODY: SO. Candidate for mayor, City Councilor at Large Michael Flaherty just announced his new running mate in an email to supporters, and it is none other than (one of) his former opponent(s) SAM YOON. I can't tell you how excited I am. After Tuesday night, I had resigned myself to watching Mayor Menino cruise to victory. Now, I believe we'll be spending the next month+ watching a very interesting, very close race. I guess I should just tell you right now that as of tonight, my personal bias is towards the newly hatched Flaherty-Yoon ticket (but of course, the BU College Democrats don't endorse [ever]). Moving on, one of my personal heroes, David Bernstein wrote in last week's Phoenix about Councilor Flaherty's need to woo former Yoon supporters. Bernstein talks about the "New Boston" ie. young progressives, minority voters and immigrants and their solid support of Councilor Yoon. According to him, Flaherty borrowed some of Yoon's campaign rhetoric for his victory speech: he was introduced as representing the New Boston, and he led his crowd of (mostly white) supporters in a "We Can't Wait!" chant. If we do the math, Mayor Menino won 50.52% of the vote, while Councilors Flaherty and Yoon won a combined 45.12% (they each won 23.9% and 21.16%, respectively). If every person who voted in last week's preliminary voted in November, Mayor Menino would win. But of course, voter turnout in the general election will be higher than turnout last week, and the higher the turnout, the better things look for the Flaherty-Yoon ticket because it was a game of numbers for the Mayor in the preliminary, and I personally believe the same will be true of the general election. We also can't assume that the city's progressives will just hand their votes straight to Michael Flaherty. Mayor Menino won endorsements in the preliminary from the MA League of Environmental Voters, MassEquality, the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization of Women (MassNOW) and a number of unions. Endorsements which he earned via 16 years of supporting progressive legislation in the city. Michael Flaherty also promised a two-year term limit on the mayor if he wins, something Sam Yoon had promised all along. I can't tell you exactly how I feel about term limits. I feel like term limits assume that voters are stupid and can't decide on their own to stop voting for a representative who stops being helpful and starts becoming greedy, and I'm sure many of you would answer, "Well, voters are stupid." ...but then why let them vote? Anyway, if you want to hear more from the campaign, make sure to tune in tomorrow at 10:15am for their official announcement/press conference. PS: There's tons of exciting things to attend around Boston in the next few weeks: A chance to hear Noam Chomsky on grassroots democracy; a free screening of "Capitalism: a Love Story" and a Q&A with Michael Moore; a reproductive rights lobby day; and more! Check out our weekly update for more info!

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